The Trent Central Student Association (TCSA)’s February 12th Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM) saw the approval of new By-law and Policy Proposals, as well as the release of the Association’s 2023-2024 Financial Statement. While the bulk of the new policies and By-law packages consisted of logistical and linguistic tweaks, some notable changes were made to the Association’s internal staffing, electoral procedure, and club levy process. Its Financial Statement also revealed over $800,000 in profits made over the course of the year.

The meeting was attended by the TCSA’s executive team and Board of Directors, Resource Manager Wendy Walker, Chair Robert Monico, and General Manager Tracy Milne, as well as around 20 students.

The 2023-2024 Financial Statement, presented by local accounting firm Baker-Tilly described a financially thriving Association whose fund balances increased by over $811, 010 throughout the 2023-2024 fiscal year. 

The Association ended the year with a surplus on every single funding line except for its General Fund, over half of which was spent on “Wages, benefits and honoraria” for the TCSA’s own staff. The Association ended the year with a $666,216 surplus in their Health & Dental Fund.

Of $84,113 budgeted in the Association's Health Financial Relief budget line, the TCSA spent $10,537.70, or approximately 12%, on expenses related to or falling under the umbrella of gender affirming care.

The TCSA also made $257, 948 off of its Transit levy. Between 87% and 93% of the transit levy’s revenue is allocated to the Association’s transit contract with the city, leaving the Association with a surplus as high as 13% on a levy item totalling more than $3 million. 

Last year, the TCSA recouped an approximately $50,000 surplus from the transit funding line. In September, the Association approved the creation of a parking bursary using $20,000 of those surplus funds.

Following the recent service renewal announcement for bus routes 31 and 32 until March 2026, Walker claimed that “unless someone approaches the TCSA to extend a service by being the main source of funding, there’s not much we’re able to do about that.”

Following Baker-Tilly’s presentation of financials, Walker presented a policy amendments package which sought to clarify the TCSA’s calls for disability accommodations and racial justice at Trent. Within the package, the Association asks that all elevator signage on campus be available in Braille and pledges to work “in collaboration with and support the First Peoples House of Learning (FPHL) and other Indigenous-led community initiatives that address the impacts of colonialism and promote Indigenous self-determination, cultural revitalization, and the advancement of reconciliation.”

The policy proposal included several small linguistic changes, mostly for the sake of added clarity and decisiveness. TCSA mission statements about improving accessibility and promoting racial justice on campus were framed as imperatives rather than suggestions. The subsequent By-Law amendments included similar changes, as well as the removal of the word ‘chief’ in relevant positions in hopes of avoiding colonial language.

Many of these changes were also put forward in last year’s policy proposal, though they were not ratified until now as a result of the Association’s proposed By-Law package being voted down twice at last year’s February 14th SAGM because of certain more controversial policy items which were included in the proposed amendments, including the lowering of the threshold for petitions to be brought to referendum.

Despite being voted down by a majority of attendees at the 2024 SAGM, the TCSA Board of Directors superseded the membership’s decision and pushed through the By-Law package by putting it to referendum in the Spring General Elections.

The policy package also included a resolution to seek external anti-racism reviews every three years, with the goal of verifying “compliance, accountability, and continuous improvement in creating an equitable and inclusive post secondary environment that actively addresses systemic racism and bias.”

The Association announced that it would be dissolving its internal anti-racism committee and replacing it with a part-time student position. The student holding this position will “[work] towards creating anti-racism initiatives on campus through events, campaigns and outreach,” in collaboration with the TCSA and different Trent departments, clubs and groups.

The now-defunct anti-racism committee “was supposed to have students come and work on it as a task force and do research for free, basically, which is something that I don't think is appropriate to ask of racialized students to come and just basically work for us to promote anti racism,” explained Walker.

Arthur asked Walker if the replacement of the committee with one part-time position would lead to lower work outputs. Further, Arthur asked her how a single position would compare to an entire committee’s ability to represent a variety of racialized perspectives. 

“There’s a lot of student groups and stuff on campus that do represent a variety of groups including TUNA, the cultural groups, regional groups, and so for us to be able to pay a student who can dedicate their time to working with those groups [...] is just, like, more effective than trying to corral a committee of students to ideally do educational work,” explained Walker.

Upon further questioning, she clarified that the position would be more of a liaison to existing race and cultural interest groups on campus with the ability to create outreach initiatives or form new task forces “if they feel that that is an effective way to conduct intersectional work on campus.” 

The TCSA has not given any indication that they will be paying any existing groups or potential task force members for this collaborative work.

Next on the agenda were the proposed By-Law amendments, among which was an outline of new TCSA electoral procedure in the case of a tie. If two candidates receive equal votes in a TCSA election, the tie will be resolved at the next board meeting through a secret ballot vote conducted by board members. 

Notably, this is the same procedure that was used to resolve a tie in this year’s recent TCSA Fall By-election, despite only being codified ex post facto at this spring SAGM. The previous version of the TCSA By-Laws did not have any clear contingency for breaking ties.

The By-Law amendments also served to alter the role of the TCSA president,  reducing their weekly hours from 35 to 20 and shifting the focus of their position toward establishing “outward connections” and “relationships with other groups” and away from the administrative aspects previously required of the station. A new position, that of Executive President, is being established to take on these administrative duties in the president’s stead, and will be filled by a graduate student or recent graduate. 

As a result of these reconfigured and less intensive presidential duties, eligibility for the presidency has expanded to include full time students. In the past, only those taking three or fewer credits throughout the term could run for TCSA president, but this clause has now been removed and replaced with the obligations that all candidates must be in good academic standing and must not have been impeached from office in the past year. Walker clarified that impeachment does not permanently preclude one from running for office because “you never know the circumstances of someone might [sic] be impeached”

This apparent attempt at lowering the bar for student engagement with the TCSA has the potential to leave the Board of Directors consisting entirely of full time students working part time hours, begging the question of how much the Association will be able to accomplish under their direction.

Going forward, the Association announced they will only hold one meeting to debate referendum questions. Its Elections Committee will hold similar powers over referenda as over election processes. These include the rights to “Determine the exact wording of referendum questions that appear on the ballot,” “Set guidelines for campaigning and approve campaign materials,” “Impose disciplinary actions to be taken against referenda committees, as deemed necessary,” and “Determine voting and counting mechanisms for referendum.”

The new By-laws included changes to the Levy funding process. Any levy group which does not deposit its Levy cheque for two consecutive terms may now be the subject of a referendum to remove its funding, down from the previous metric of two years of financial non-compliance 

Clubs requesting a referendum to receive Levy funding must now have been registered with the Association for four years, instead of two.

It is clear from the TCSA’s financial statements that the Association is in sound financial standing. What’s less clear is where that money is going, and how it will benefit the students. Between the clarification of vague previous promises, the restructuring decisions which seem to prioritize convenience over efficiency, and the fact that student levy fees are not fully represented by the Association’s financial output, the Spring SAGM did little to answer these questions.

Editor's Note 2025-03-11 11:24 AM: A previous version of this article mistakenly implied that the Association had distributed only $10,537.70 of $84,113 intended to provide support for gender affirming care. In actuality, of a total of $84,1113 distributed under the Association's Health Financial Relief budget line, $10,537.70 had been distributed for the purpose of gender affirming care.

Arthur attributes this error in part to a misunderstanding on the part of one of the authors of information provided in correspondence with Association General Manager Tracy Milne.

Arthur regrets any confusion this oversight may have caused.